Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
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Have been given this very interesting description of the packet yard compiled by Pat McGeehan who was a Chief Engineer with Sealink whom I sailed with many years ago and remember as being a jolly nice bloke. My colleague Chris Killick has kindly forwarded this and has fond memories of the packet yard as he was the penultimate electrical apprentice taken on at the yard.
THE DOVER EXPRESS FRIDAY EVENING MAY 11TH 1888
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE
SKETCHES OF DOVER – VH INDUSTRIAL SERIES
THE DOVER STEAM PACKET YARD
The Dover Steam Packet Yard
Unquestionably the most important and interesting of the Dover industries, the steam packet yard of the London Chatham and Dover Railway Company, situated under the cliff and on the main thoroughfare at the bottom of Snargate Street, opposite the opening facing the harbour, it is conveniently near the dock where the Dover-Calais fleet lies when brought in for repairs.
By kind permission of Mr. Kirtley, the chairman of the company, I have this week had the opportunity of going over these works and watching the manifold operations in the various departments. Seen through the pattern makers loft; the foundry, the forge, the coppersmiths shop, until it is brought bone to bone sinew to sinew in that incorporation of theatrical and mechanical skill, the channel steamer. Keeping in view the leading idea of these industrial sketches - the task of opening out to the public eye the centres where the artizans of Dover pursue their toil and earn their livelihoods - these works under the cliffs are a most interesting feature.
From all quarters of the town at early morning, the bread winners of hundreds of families head in this direction - crowd in at the factory doors to enter their appearance and then disperse for the works of the day- some to the higher duty of developing and elaborating ideas on paper, most, to the no less Important work of transforming those ideas into metallic form and substance in the various workshops, while others are distributed over vessels under repair in the harbour. Seeing that there are 250 hands employed In connection with the works it is an important duty falling on the clerks and timekeepers to check every man's coming and going, to record his time and pay his wages. This is done in a very orderly and quiet way by the machinery of the time office, which supplies each employee with a numbered check which, when he enters he deposits through a slit in a box at the window. Later in the morning these checks are ranged on a large board, where there is a place for each number, therefore a blank space represents the absence of somebody. From this board, on which in symbolic form the employees are ranged in review order, the time keeper compiles his daily records, and by Friday night the account is complete, every man's money is placed in a separate tin case about the size and shape of half a pepper box, and these being ranged on the table for easy reference are handed to the employees as they pass out. The work of paying the weekly wages - amounting every Friday to about £310 - is done without the slightest confusion in about five minutes.
I need not comment on the benefit to Dover of the weekly circulation of that £310, the good it does in the first instance in providing for a large number of families and its benefit in a secondary sense in swelling the takings of Dover tradesmen is self evident. Having spoken of the army of workers, it should also be mentioned that the presiding mind overlooking this busy hive is Mr. Little, who not only controls this centre of operations but also the locomotive works at Battersea. When the company took over the mail service, now about a quarter of a century ago, Mr Martly was the chief of the department. Mr. Kirtley succeeded him in 1874, consequently he has been at the helm during the last fourteen years - a period marked by wonderful developments in the channel service and of consequent growth of the Dover Packet Yard.
The chief object for which these works are maintained at Dover is to keep in going order the magnificent fleet of steam packets with which the London, Chatham and Dover company are performing the mail, passenger and goods traffic between Dover and Calais, therefore, it will be understood that the work produced is of miscellaneous and sectional character, to borrow a martial figure, it is not the recruiting depot where the entire man is transformed into a soldier, but the field hospital where he is supplied with arms, legs or other members he may happen to lose in actual conflict. In short, this Packet Yard is a place of general renewals and repairs from the replacing of an entirely new boiler or cylinder, down to the rectifying of a defective steam cock or loose rivet. It will also be readily seen that since this factory has to keep in repair the whole of the Dover and Calais fleet, though demands upon it must have been largely increased since the company took the service over in 1862 when the vessels in use were really cockle boats compared with those of today. A line or two of comparison will strikingly illustrate this point. In 1854 the fleet of the Dover and Calais service consisted of eleven vessels, the total indicated horse power of the whole being eight thousand, three hundred and fifty the aggregate voyages performed one thousand, five hundred and eighteen. Now the number of vessels is 16 with a total indicated horsepower of 30,195 making 3,088 trlps. Thus it will be seen that the service has increased in leaps and bounds, the journeys across the straits being more than quadrupled while the mails and general traffic have grown in like proportion. But more of this anon. Reserving fuller description as to the capacity speed and power of the various vessels in the service for the concluding part of this sketch. I will now go through the several departments of the works.
The starting point is the office of the local chief of these works. Mr. Messanger, who for a generation past has been actively engaged at this Packet Yard. I could not have had a better guide. The walls of his room are adorned with carefully drawn diagrams on enormous sheets with 365 horizontal lines representing the days of the year, and numerous vertical ones, so subdividing the table, that it shows at a glance the daily journeys of each vessel, the force of the wind, the nature of the weather, the working of the engines and the duty done by the fuel, while blanks here and there in the columns representing the times of the vessels in dock, with red ink notes indicating the repairs which necessitated their suspension from service. These large diagrams extend over many years forming a most interesting and valuable record of the Steam Packet Service. Another set of diagrams is especially devoted to the boiler`s, showing at a glance when they were overhauled cleaned and repaired. Crossing the corridor from the manager`s room we enter the drawing office where a number of gentlemen with their coats off handling mathematical instruments and artists materials, are busily engaged making the working drawings of the several pieces of machinery to be produced in the foundry and the workshops. It is the fashion for old fashioned practical men to question the utility of the gentleman who perform the theoretical task of producing lines and curves on paper. But it would be far less hopeless to attempt to navigate the trackless ocean without a compass than to countenance the construction of the elaborate mechanisms of steam boats without the whole being first drawn out on paper with mathematical exactitude. From the archives of the drawing office were brought out the complete drawings of the Empress Victoria and other vessels now on the service, but except for the purpose of producing administration with a slight sense of bewilderment such elaborate efforts of the draughtman's skills were of little assistance to my lay mind, for they called up more than anything else fancies of the wheel within wheel mechanism of Ezekiels vision. In the steam boat work these drawings are not only necessary for the information of the officials to estimate the material for the works and as guides for the operatives, but it is indispensable that they should be submitted to the marine department of the Board of Trade who subject them to an ordeal of critical examination. This necessitates the duplicating and in many cases quadrupling of these elaborate drawings, and after that the general plan has to be sub-divided into enlarged working drawings some of which are drawn in the actual size of the article to be produced. To the casual view the work in the drawing office looks pleasant and agreeable such as an educated man would perform with pleasure, but there are other duties such as going down to the boats getting measurements under difficulties by crawling between the boilers and in other close and not particularly clean quarters for the lines and curves on the sheets are not intuitions but mathematical facts arrived at by actual measurement. When it has been determined and set out on paper what is to be done, the next step, if the material is to be of cast metal, is for a sectional drawing or a tracing of it to be sent to the pattern maker who produces in wood, either pine or mahogany, an exact model of the article to be cast in the foundry. Pattern making is a very pretty work affording ample scope for the executive skill of the operator. The leading hand in this department seems not only to excel in that respect but also to possess facility for classification which is most essential for the thousands of patterns stored here it would be little better than useless lumber if the particular thing required could not be found at a moment's notice. It might seem a peculiar thing to the uninitiated, that when a massive iron wheel is hastily required to make good a defect in one of the engines the operator should proceed with greatest energy to make a wooden one, it would appear like asking for bread and receiving a stone. But in primitive times a person hardly in need of bread might not find a stone so acceptable, seeking that he might use it for grinding his corn; and in like manner, in the modern method of machinery production a wooden wheel is most necessary for producing an iron one. In this turnery, or pattern shop, an exact model of everything to be cast in the foundry has to be primarily constructed in wood not roughly, but carefully shaped, nicely smoothed and beautifully finished off with varnish. Nor is this the mere fancy outcome of an operators pride in his work. The fidelity in following the curves and lines of the draughtsman, is simply essential to ensure mathematical accuracy in the machinery, while the smooth finish produced by the plane, the lathe and the varnish are absolutely necessary, so that the pattern should leave in the mould smooth faces to form the castings. But the production of a moulder's pattern is something more than making a mere exact model. For instance it would be very easy to make a wooden model of an iron pipe, but if that model alone were used to shape the sand mould, the thing produced would be but a solid cylinder. Pats description of a pipe being a hole with some iron around it is never the pattern makers ideal. In other words the pattern maker has to provide for the inside as well as the outside. The inside is called the "core" and has to be produced by a separate pattern, a description of which will be better understood when we come to see the moulder's work.
The pattern has to be made in many sections so that it may be drawn out of the sand after its impression has been made, without destroying the shape of the mould. Another point in the pattern makers works which considerably taxes his experience and judgment is the allowance he has to make in measurement for shrinkage. A pattern of the exact size of the required casting would be too small owing to the iron shrinking in cooling. Nor can a calculation be made on the principle that the shrinkage will always be in the same proportion, for it depends on the shape of the article. The rules which guide the operator in this respect are the result of long and careful observation. Having said that the work of the pattern maker is pretty, I might add that his tools are various and numerous and that the modus operandi of production is interesting. Likewise in looking around the pattern stores I was much struck with the great variety of shape and size in the immense accumulation of stock as well as the methodical arrangement. Some were black and others were yellow, the former being intended for iron casting and the latter for brass. The largest pattern in stock seemed to be the "boss" of the paddle wheel of the Calais-Dover`s Steamer. With this was stored the bosses of other paddle wheels of smaller dimensions, while from these, the patterns by numerous graduations of size, come down to the smallest steam cock. Amongst the many thousands in the store there is no pattern which has not at some time done valuable service, and now they quietly rest on the shelf, like many of their human prototypes, waiting for something to turn up which will bring them back into use again - some are frequently used, while others probably have finished their career and owing to new inventions are deemed to be shelved in perpetuity. Adjoining the pattern department is a room containing drawings relating to the boiler making industry, to which much interest is attached. En passant it may be mentioned that between thirty and forty years ago, when space was not so quite important as now, Mr Churchward, who then owned this packet yard, granted the use of this particular room for the drilling of the Dover Company of Rifle Volunteers which he so materially assisted in founding. Since that time boiler making on a very large scale has been carried on and the floor of this room has been utilized for outlining in paint the full sized drawings of boilers for the several steamers, in fact so numerous have been the drawings almost line upon line that, for the sake of distinctiveness they have been made in different coloured paints. So active has this branch of the work been that during the last 23 years no less than 56 new boilers have been manufactured from the lines laid down on this now historic floor. As to boiler making, however, I shall have a few more words to say when I come to that department, which is one of the most important in the factory. The diagrams of boilers have caused a little digression - I was last describing the process of pattern making, from which the natural course would be to follow the work onto the foundry. The operations in that busy and most interesting department I shall next describe.
Dover Packet Yard Foundry
This most important of departments has amongst its varied and complex machinery a boiler capable of driving a small but powerful steam engine so organised that in case of a sudden breakdown in the mail packets, steam can be got up and the Foundry in full swing in thirty minutes. This engine also works a crane of special design for hoisting the supply of pig iron up to the platforms each morning previously to the casting in the afternoon. Apart from the work it is doing, this little engine is very curiously and Ingeniously designed, exhibiting some extraordinary features in its formation and occupies a remarkably small space for the power that it develops. Its parts are all placed low down close to the bedplate, and its motion - familiary called by the men in charge, a drunken motion - is so peculiar that it would be impossible with someone not fully acquainted with engineering to fairly describe it. It struck me that from its compact form it would be well adapted to be placed low down in our great warships where, if made in much enlarged proportions, it would develope wonderful power without occupying any of the spare space so necessary above the waterline on a fighting vessel. I understand that this unique engine is the sole invention of Mr. Messenger, the local chief of these works and that it's novel principles have never been applied for any other purposes than those for which it is now used. But I must return to the cupolas to watch the action of intensified heat on the iron by which it was being fed. We now leave the platform and through glass covered apertures at the bottom of the cupola see the effect in the great drops of molten perspiration falling out of the zone of fusion into the crucible, where it forms a reservoir, until enough is melted to commence the casting. The material usually employed as flux at these works is chalk, but on this occasion a special article called Bohemian flux, now used for the first time, produces very satisfactory results. While the molten meal is digesting we will look round the foundry, where the mornings work of between thirty and forty busy men has prepared the moulds in the dark sand from Impressions made by the previously prepared patterns. I have already said in describing those patterns that for castings having hollow interiors there have to be two models and two moulds. The outer mould having been made by the pattern's impression in the dark sand filling the cast iron cases in the floor, the interiors, or cores, have to be formed by a still more delicate process out of special sand, and as they have to be handled and fitted in position they have to be baked in an oven heated by the flues passing from the brass furnaces. The work of placing in the cores and touching up with small trowels and other tools, the faces of the moulds is a very delicate operation, and more especially is this the case when the interiors are complicated as in the case of locomotive cylinders. On the latter work special men are employed, there always being some of those large castings in process. The general divisions of the employees in the Foundry are moulders, moulders assistants, apprentices, and labourers, with Mr. E. Ferguson as their foreman, which position he has held since May, 1878, he having for six years previously been the leading hand in the brass foundry. Turning, again to the iron work I find that the moulders and their assistants have completed their moulds which are now encased in iron boxes with proper holes left for pouring in the metal, and others for air and gases to escape. In the meantime the melting has so far advanced that the molten iron from the crucible can be drawn off. One important casting the men were engaged on while I watched was a cylinder for a locomotive engine. The complete mould, which was of a very complicated character when finished, was enclosed in a large square box, and when all was ready, about 22 cwt. of liquid metal was drawn off into a large iron bucket, held by a chain attached to a travelling lift. When full, the bucket was swung and drawn over the mould where it was tilted and poured until the mould was quite full.
This important operation, though surrounded by a very heated atmosphere and sparks flying like showers of meteors, was done with the utmost coolness and precision, the interesting sight calling to mind the line of Toulmine : -
For when the molten iron poured
Into the first rough mould,
The heritage of cunning craft
Was to the right hand sold.
Right well has the heritage been used, for certainly one of the greatest triumphs of mind over matter is shown in the successful manner in which the stubborn iron is transformed into any shape that the will of man may desire. I have mentioned locomotive cylinders as specimens of some of the large castings done here, but those are not by any means the heaviest. In May 1881 the large bosses of the paddle wheels for the Calais – Dovers were cast, which involved the melting of more than five tons of metal. This was more than the reservoirs in the crucibles would accommodate, and a dam had to be made outside the cupolas, and the molten iron being covered with sand as a non conductor of heat while the rest of the iron was melted. By adopting that plan the resources of this foundry would be equal to the task of turning out castings weighing eight tons. A great deal of the work however is small, the floor of the foundry being covered with moulds of all sizes, which when they come to be broken up the next morning, disclose a great variety of iron work, this being removed to the fettling shop where four or five men are employed brushing off the sand, dressing off protuberences, and finishing the castings ready for delivery. A great deal of work goes away to the locomotive department at Longhedge, urgent work being despatched by passenger train nearly every day, and a truckload going up every Thursday. I must also add a word about the brass Foundry. This is in the same building and a large amount of work is done in that branch, especially for the steam boats, as owing to the oxidizing of Iron at sea, many parts that would be of iron for use on land, are made of brass for marine machinery. The furnaces for casting do not require a forced blast, but there is a strong natural draft created by a tall chimney, and lately the furnaces have been remodelled with very beneficial results. The casting of brass requires rather more experience than iron owing to the discretion that has to be used in mixing the alloys. The materials used in producing the brass are certain proportions of copper, tin and zinc. To produce toughness the larger proportion of copper is used, but if hardness is required the proportion of tin is increased, while zinc improves the metal more especially for machine work. These ingredients are put into a crucible, which is lifted in and out of the furnace by blocks and chains, the heat being sufficient to melt the contents of a 300 lb. crucible in an hour; the zinc however, is not added till a later stage, or it would evaporate before the other substances were reduced to liquid. In other respects the operation of brass casting differs very little from the iron. Although brass is somewhat a dear article just now, it is more and more employed in the bearings of marine machinery, the whole cap being frequently cased in one piece of brass, or rather phosphor bronze, instead of having a brass next the working part and a cast iron cap over it -- a pound or two in the cost of material being of very little consequence compared with the inconvenience of a breakdown in mid channel. It is true such accidents are very rare with the boats of the Dover and Calais steam packets, and there is no question but that immunity from accidents, for which the service is noted, should to a great extent be credited to the excellent work turned out from the Foundry at the Packet Yard.
Next week I propose to give a description of the boiler making department.
Dover Packet Yard - Boiler Makers
Continuing my description of the industries at the Dover Steam Packet Yard, I next come to the boiler makers and Smith's a noisy lot, whose sharp hammers clink and loud resounding blows, renders it almost an impossibility to hear in their locality, therefore it will be necessary to make good use of one`s eyes.
The smithy at these works is not at all like that "under the spreading chestnut tree" but the smiths are mighty men "with large and sinewy hands." The scene of their toil is a large lofty building, rather larger than the Foundry, with rows of hearths extending down its whole length, and at the top is a covered yard where the boilers are constructed. For several years, boiler - making has been a thriving branch of industry at these works, and must of necessity continue to be so in the future, As the growth of the Channel traffic and the increasing speed of steamers, is constantly adding to the strain on the boilers, within whose iron - bound carcasses is generated the great expansive power which has worked the modern miracle on propelling a great passenger steamer from Dover to Calais in an hour. It appears to have cost the early engineers much thought and experimental labour before they fixed on a suitable material for making boilers that would bear the pressure of engine work. Stone, lead, copper and cast - iron were tried before they finally hit upon the successful plan of using wrought iron plates, joined together with rivets. Since that method was adopted, there has been no radical change, but experience has suggested many improvements, such as using steel instead of iron, while mechanical contrivances have greatly facilitated the operations. Strength and power of resistance are the qualities needed in a boiler, therefore if goes without saying that the material used must be the very best. In picking up from Mr. Musk, the foreman of the boiler - making department, a few hints as to "how it is done," he first introduced me to the raw material in the shape of boiler plates, just in the same way that the tailor would display his Scotch tweed or broad cloth. The plates used are of two kinds --- for the shells the best Staffordshire boiler plate is used, but for the sections near the furnaces and other parts where the structure is not only subjected to the pressure of steam but to action of intense heat, Yorkshire plate, the best iron that the world produces is used, the thickness of the iron varying from 7-16ths to 3/4 inch. Cutting out, shaping, fitting and seaming, is no diletente's occupation - it is hard, muscle - straining work from beginning to end. It also requires tact and intelligence, both in the foreman who directs the operations, and the men who carry out the details, as everything is done from plans, and perfect accuracy is indispensable. With the order for a new boiler, the foreman receives from the superintendent of the works a carefully drawn set of plans showing every detail of the construction both internally and externally. It becomes the duty of the foreman boiler - maker to take these plans, and after arranging for the quantity and kinds of material to be used, he makes out a rough working drawing to guide the operatives. It requires some technical knowledge and experience to understand the fully elaborated plans sent out from the drawing office, but the working sectional sketches given to the workmen would be utterly beyond the comprehension of anyone but a skilled boiler-maker. The next business is to get the work cut out. For some portions of the boiler it is tolerably plain sailing - the plates are joined together in streakes. But others have to be turned about into various shapes, some being bent by machinery, and others flanged at the forge. The plate - bending rolls are very effective when the whole length or breadth of the plate requires a regular curvature. There are three rolls in the machine, two on the same level and one above, the upper one being movable so that the workmen can adjust its distance from the other two according to the amount of curvature that the plate requires. Another ponderous machine is used for cutting the plates to the right size and shape. This is a long way in advance of the primitive method of toiling with the chisel and hammer. The same machine which does the plate shearing at one end does the punching of the plates at the other. It is driven by steam and does its work with the utmost of ease, all that the workmen have to do is hold the plate in position, so that the shears may follow the chalk outline. The most important, difficult, and at the same time laborious operation, in preparing the plates is "flanging" them. In marine boilers there are pieces that have to be bent and angled in several different ways. This work has to be done at the forge, and as the pieces of plate are several hundred - weight, a special hearth has to be built up to accommodate them, and they are moved from hearth to anvil by a swinging crane. Perhaps the most difficult piece of flanging is that of a saddle plate, so called, I suppose, owing to it's being bent over and turned back and front. The turning up of angles at the end of a piece of plate that is curved length ways, is a work of great nicety. When the heat has been obtained, the temporary hearth built round the plate is thrown down and the plate is swung to the anvil where two men with monster wooden mallets pound away, while the head flanger regardless of the flying shower of sparks, critically watches the effects of their blows and directs them. The natural effect of this beating of the heated plate would be to thin it at the points operated on, but that is a result which the flanger has to avoid as, the angle of the plate requires special strength. The work of flanging, therefore, is not finished until the angles are not only of the proper shape, but also the iron at those angles worked up to a little more than its original thickness. It requires many heats to perform this feat, and an amount of skill which only a long experienced workman can acquire. There is ample opportunity however for gaining this special skill, for there are a large number of flanged pieces in a marine boiler so that this work is nearly always going on. Other pieces which require much preparation are the tube plates. These are the fore and aft ends of the boilers through which run the tubes that convey the heat of the furnace to close contact with the water. These plates after being cut and shaped, are perforated to receive the tubes. This is done in the smithy by a cleverly designed boring machine, which fixes its point in the centre to be bored, and projecting from this is a pivot cutter, which can be set according to the size of the hole required, and the machine being set in motion by a band, the knife moving round the circumference cuts a circular piece out with great accuracy. In this way the whole tube plate is quickly perforated.
After this the plates are dressed, and with regard to those which have been flanged at the forge, special pains are taken to make them perfectly straight and level. For this a large furnace has been built adjoining the foundry, for which the tall chimney shaft is utilized. The furnace is constructed
to heat the plates evenly by the draught carrying the fire under and over them.
When hot they are drawn and placed on a broad iron slab, where four men with large wooden mallets beat them quite level. Thus it will be seen, that in boiler making there is a great deal of toil in shaping and fitting the material before the process of seaming it together is commenced.
The next stage is to mark the rivet holes which are then punched in the plate by the opposite end of the large machine which had previously sheared it. In many cases however, the rivet holes are made with a drilling machine. In fact more than half the work is done by the drill here as that method is considered most effective. The next task is “plating” when all the plates are accurately fitted together. Except, perhaps the flanging, this is one of the most critical operations and on the proper performance of it depends on the efficiency of all the previous and subsequent work. Then of course follows the rivetting, a process which most persons who have been in the vicinity of boilerworks have heard if not seen. The rivet is heated at a portable forge close at hand; it is pushed through the plates, and while one man holds the head in position with a "dolly," two riveters hammer away until a head is formed on the other side, and as the rivet cools the shrinkage draws the seams close, after which they are caulked. Thus stitch by stitch the great iron structure is fastened together, and when it is all completed the marine boiler is a very complicated affair, for the furnace, flues, combustion chamber, and uptakes leading to the funnel are all enclosed in one exterior, so that when the finished article is seen only a small portion of the works is exposed to view. Then after all this is done in order to make a marine boiler strong enough to bear even low pressure it has to be stayed --- that is, wrought iron rods run vertically, longitudinally, and laterally --- from top to bottom, from end to end and from side to side, the ends being fixed in the boiler plate by screws or rivets. These stays are usually not more than from 12 to 18 inches apart, so that the interior is a very peculiar place to move about in. We have now followed in a sketchy way the process of boiler construction from the plate to the finished article. There is no necessity to go into further details as to the smithy, as the ordinary work of a smith Is familiar to most readers, but there is this peculiarity at the Packet Yard -- there are no bellows such as formed the great attraction to the school boys in Longfellow' s Village Smithy, yet the fires blaze and roar obedient to the desire of the operative, the blast being created by a fan driven by the factory engine and conducted subterraneously to each of the hearths where it is turned on or off as required. Of course the Packet Yard smiths do much other work besides boiler making. In fact from paddle wheels down to the smallest rod, the steamers are hourly subject to breakages, and demands on this shop are made at every emergency. It would not interest the reader to go into those details, but since boiler making has been the main burden of this article, I might profitably conclude it by recalling what has been done in boiler making since 1864. In that year one small boiler was made for the steamer Ondine, and in 1865 another was made for the Pioneer. Not a very great rush at the beginning, certainly, but in 1866 boiler making began here in earnest, and since that date 56 new boilers, many of them weighing as much as 25 tons each having been turned out at these works. This has been rather smart considering that in this shop where the operations are of a miscellaneous character, there are not the facilities which exist in larger firms. One great difficulty encountered in the early days, was the removal of the boilers from the yard to the steamers. It was then necessary to get them across from the yard to the Granville Dock in the best way possible, to launch them there, and tow them by means of a tug to the other dock under the large crane to be lifted on board the vessels. This mode of shipping boilers was slow and expensive, as it generally occupied a week to get a couple of boilers on board a steamer. A better method was adopted in 1873 when a special trolley capable of carrying 30 tons, was designed, and it was built in such a manner that it could be loaded without a lift. The first advent of this trolley in the streets of Dover will be long remembered by the inhabitants, it being associated with a contested election when the claims of that meteor-like visitor Mr. W.E. Barney were opposed to those of that staunch old friend of Dover, Mr J. S. Forbes, the chairman of the London, Chatham, and Dover Company. Naturally the majority of the employees of these works were enthusiastic for their great chief, and it so happened that just when the contest was at its height, the new 30 ton boiler trolley was ready and loaded for the first time. The men in their enthusiasm, covered both trolley and boiler with Mr. Forbes election bills, planted a flag on top, and this extraordinary load, drawn through the town by a traction engine, proved to be -- though an unexpected -- very effective demonstration. The pity is that at that time the working men of Dover did not consult their best interests by electing Mr. Forbes as their member.
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood leads onto fortune.
There is no question but that in 1873 the tide leading to industrial prosperity was missed at Dover, but it may be hoped that in consequence of that mistake, the good old town will not, as foreshadowed by the immortal Bard, for ever after be "bound in the shallows and in miseries." Returning to the big boiler trolley, that has proved a complete success, for although there were gloomy forebodings that it would break down, that there would be accidents, that it would sink into the street and wreck the gas and water pipes, it has been continually used for shipping the many boilers made since then, In comparison with the long time and great expense of removing boilers as mentioned above when nearly every man in the factory was requisitioned to help, and the departments all disorganized in consequence, the use of the big trolley with the aid of nine or ten men enables them to ship a pair of boilers before dinner time. This large trolley is still equal to its work, but should the boilers turned out in this yard in the future require a carriage of larger tonnage, I have no doubt the resources of these works will be ample to meet the emergency. Next week I must invite the reader to follow me through the fitting shops.
THE FITTING SHOPS
Having followed the work in the Packet Yard from the drawing office, through the various stages of patterns, moulding, casting, and forging, I have now to describe the finishing touches in the fitting shops. Just as the student, after his probation from Rugby, Eaton, Harrow, or Dover, goes up to Oxford or Cambridge to receive his educational polish, so everything of importance fashioned in the Packet Yard (except the boilers) has to go through these fitting shops before it is ready to take its place and do its duty in the corporate mechanism of the marine engine. The fitting shops are on three storeys, on the side of the works next the railway station, the heavy pieces of machinery being finished on the ground floor, the second floor being occupied chiefly by lathes, and in the upper room are machines and fitter's vice - benches, with a tool and material store. The fitters are under the special charge of Mr. Lenham, who occupies the residence adjoining the works, and who, in the absence of Mr. Messenger is in sole charge of the entire yard. His position is a responsible one, as he is likely to be called upon at any time, day or night, or Sunday, and in the case of a breakdown when the factory is not going, it falls to him to get the needed work done at the shortest possible notice. Owing to this general responsibility, Mr Lenham has in the fitting shop his lieutenant, Mr. Morris, an old servant of the Company, who takes the oversight of that special department, of which we will now take a tour, starting from the bottom. Passing through the engine room we come to a large number of men at work on the marine engine cranks and shafts made of Vickers steel for the Foam,
now under repair in the Wellington Dock.
The chief feature of this is a large lathe much the largest on the premises which is used for turning the pistons and other parts of the cylinders for the marine engines, and also the heavy shafts, cranks and paddle wheel bosses. This lathe was designed and made in this factory its strength and capacity
being arranged to suit the work allotted to it. The greatest size to which it will work is a piece 24 feet in circumference and about seven tons in weight. Nevertheless, this large mechanical tool is adaptable to many shapes and sizes and its speed by various contrivances has fourteen graduations, the quickest being about fifty revolutions per minute and its slowest three quarters of a revolution per minute. With the slow motion, after the work is set, the lathe requires very little attention for it proceeds with an easy, steady, and very stately motion, something like that which the poet must have had in mind when he wrote:-
“The mills of God grind slowly,
But they grind exceeding sure.”
Alongside this great lathe is also a planing machine, of such large dimensions that it will operate upon a metallic substance, 3 feet wide, 3 ft high and 8ft long. We will now go up a storey higher, in the next fitting shop there is opened to us a long vista of activity, whirling shafts, whizzing bands, machines of various kinds in motion, very little noise and no confusion. This is the principle turnery where parts of machinery of all kinds, brass steel, wrought iron, and cast iron are brought to be turned, bored, and fitted, so that they will unite joint to joint, and sinew to sinew, before the steam-breath comes to give the dry bones life. A poor grunting, squeaking, creaking rheumatic sort of life would the steam engine in action exhibit were not the skill of this department expended on making its several joints and limbs perfectly adapted to each other. When the early engine makers used to invite their friends to come and see the wonders they had wrought, and too frequently had to dissapoint them by the machine, after a few spasmodic efforts refusing to move, the defect, as a rule was a shortcoming of the fitter, the seating of a valve, the truing of a rod, or the simultaneous action of one part with another had not been accurately arranged. In these days the art of the fitter is carried to high perfection, the grace of the movements of the modern engine being due to the accuracy of detail in this department. The work of the fitting shop is minutely subdivided. Here one youth industrially plys his lathe in nicely turning plugs for boiler tubes, another graduate in engineering is acquiring accuracy and dexterity in turning and threading brass studs, the finished part of his work, with sheen and polished glow lying beside him. Another at the wide gap lathe, is truing a steel rod, another ploughing out the thread of a square cut screw, while a brass - finisher, at a beautiful lathe of modern make is giving the finishing touches to some brass castings for the repair of the steamer Foam. In one of these new brass pieces - called, I think an expansion box - I noted a variation from the old one that it is to replace. This addition has been designed to discharge the blown off steam into the sea, so that when a vessel comes alongside the Admirality Pier, and has her steam suddenly shut off, there should not be the roaring noise from the steam valve, which renders the orders of the captain and the conversation of the passengers almost inaudible. This useful improvement in the vessels now under repair, will afford public satisfaction. The largest lathe in the room I am describing is 7ft. 6 in. in circumference. This was made on the works, and is capable of operating on very large pieces, it being so arranged that when the work in too unshapely to turn on the lathe it is fixed and the tool revolves. In this way the fitters were working on a large eccentric band with rod attached. Another, the last lathe I have to mention in this shop, was at work on the brass unions of fire hose. There are several lengths of hose on each steamer as well as about 800 ft. in reserve on these works. The unions of each piece are made from the same patterns and dies so that everything is interchangeable. The standard adopted being that of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. To sum up, there are in this one fitting room seven lathes, a shaping machine, and two drilling machines, worked by a shaft overhead, running up the centre, from which bands are carried when required. In the upper room, to which we now go, there is also a central shaft working lathes, shaping and screw making machine, these occupy about half the space, while the other is surrounded by vice benches. The places at most of these benches were vacant as I passed, the men being away in the harbour, there being two large steamers and a tug under repair. The nut and pin threading machine were active, the demand for bolts being a never ceasing one. From this room we pass into the store, where, under the care of a methodical keeper, the tools - files, chissels, punches- are kept in orderly arrangement, stocks and dies, ratchet drills and all the etcetera of the factories requirements ready for issue on requisition. Here too is kept the finished small work, such as valves and other interchangeable gear likely to be called for at short notice. Much of the more valuable material is stored here. I noticed, for instance, rolls of asbestos cloth, the latest and most effective material brought into use for the joints of steam pipes. The indestructibility of the asbestos cloth is increased by there being woven into the middle of it a phosphor bronze gauze. This giant - joint making stuff is also in other forms. Leaving this department we pay a visit to the coppersmiths, who are very important craftsmen on these works, as some of the most valuable parts of the marine engine pass through their hands. We find them at work preparing to braze a flange to the main steam pipe of one of the marine engines. It is hardly necessary to point out the responsible character of this work, for it may be remembered that a few years ago on a Southampton line of steamers a flaw in a pipe of this kind lead to a sad sacrifice of life. Apart from that responsibility the material is costly, and should one of these copper pipes be burnt during the work of brazing, the loss would be serious. It is very interesting to watch one of these large brazing operations. To braze this main steam pipe, it was necessary to fix a special circular brazer for it in the centre of the shop, and to this is carried the blow tubes, operating on a circle of twyers, fixed at regular Intervals round a fire of coke in the pan. In the centre of the fire the joint to be brazed had been fixed, the large pipe being suspended from blocks. The chief coppersmith with his assistants preparing for their work, reminded one of Priests preparing an alter for burnt sacrifice. Before the fire is kindled the jointed work is covered with the alloy, consisting of soft spelter and other ingredients, and when all is ready the fire is carried from an adjoining hearth, the blast is turned on, and very soon the pan surrounding the work is in a radiant glow. Presently the alloy begins to liquidate, the chief coppersmith, regardless of the fumes of sulphur or the heat keeps his eye on the joint, with his long spoon he drops in here and there a little borax to facilitate the fusion. Now he rigorously throws out the fire where the heat is getting too fierce, while his assistants regulate the blast. A large joint like this on a main steam pipe is not brazed by magic. Here and there are places where the alloy has run through. The blast is turned on again, the opening is fed with more spelter and borax. At last it is all tight. A good sound brazed joint made all around; quickly the blast is off, the fire dispersed, and the large pipe lowered by the blocks to cool in the well below. In the vicinity of the coppersmiths, there is also a Tinman's shop, in which a small staff is constantly engaged turning out boiler lamps and other requisites of the packet service. I have now completed my tour of the Packet Yard, and I am glad to learn that I have given pleasure to a large portion of the public in bringing out facts previously but little known respecting this important industry of Dover, but I have not yet quite done. Next week I shall conclude with a general view of the Dover packet service, the maintenance of which provides the Packet Yard with constant employment.
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
